Rolling mill



L. H. PETEREIT ROLLING MILL March 8, 1960 3 SheetsSheet l Filed Aug. 17,1956 INVENTOR. othar H. Pe t e'rei t BY oTney March 8, 1960 H. PETEREIT2,927,488

ROLLING MILL Filed Aug. 17, 1956 3 Sheets-51.19MB

INVENTOR. .ZothaT H. Petereit 11am J 4 H o'rne ROLLING MILL Lothar H.Petereit, Worcester, Mass., assignor to Morgan Construction Company,Worcester, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application August 17,1956, Serial No. 604,825

4 Claims. (Cl. 80-311) This invention relates to a rolling mill and moreparticularly to apparatus having vertical rolls for the forming andattenuation of metal.

in a continuous rolling mill it is advantageous at certain points in therolling schedule to make use of a roll stand having vertical rolls.Among other beneficial aspects of the use of such a mill is the factthat it does away with the necessity of twisting the material beingrolled. However, certain problems arise in the construction and use of avertical mill that are not encountered in the design of a horizontalmill. The driving connection between the fixed pinions and theadjustable vertical rolls is accomplished by use of drive spindles, eachspindle being connected to its corresponding roll neck and pinion bycouplings. Also, a splined connection is provided, either between thespindle and roll or between the spindle and pinion; this connectionpermits vertical adjustment of the rolls to align grooves, etc. Avertical rolling mill of this type is shown in the patent of OMalley No.2,575,231. In the past, when the coupling joining the spindle to itsroll neck was disconnected to change rolls, the splined connection madeit possible for the coupling and spindle to fall downwardly aconsiderable distance with the attendant danger of damage to theelements; this was true whether the splined connection was at the top orat the bottom of the spindle. Furthermore, coupling connections with theroll have always been cumbersome and considerable time was required tomake and break the connections. This time added to the costly,non-operating time consumed in making roll changes and was veryundesirable. These and other difficulties experienced with thepreviouslyknown devices are obviated by the present invention in a novelmanner.

It is therefore an outstanding object of the invention to provide avertical rolling mill in which the roll drive means is retained in itsoperative position despite removal of the roll.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a vertical rollingmill having a connection between the spindle coupling and the roll neck,which connection is readily rendered inoperative or operative.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a verticalrolling mill having a connection between each roll and its spindlecoupling that may be disengaged for a roll change from a position awayfrom the mill.

With these and other objects in view, as may become apparent to thoseskilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of theparts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appendedhereto.

The character of the invention, however, may be best understood byreference to certain of its structural forms, as illustrated by theaccompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is an elevational view of a vertical rolling mill embodying theprinciples of the instant invention as viewed along the pass line fromthe approach side of the mill,

Figure 2 is an elevational view of the invention taken transversely ofthe pass line, and

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Figure 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the apparatus taken on theline III-III of Figure 1.

Referring first to Figures land 2, wherein are best shown the generalfeatures of the invention, the vertical rolling mill, designatedgenerally by the reference numeral 10, is shown as comprising a fixedmain housing 11 of the open top type, including four upright posts 12arranged in two pairs at opposite sides of the mill pass line. The topsof the posts 12 are connected by a horizontal housing cap 13 which isreleasably secured to the posts. Each pair of posts 12 defines a mainhousing window 14. A roll cage 15 is slidable vertically within thewindows 15. This housing comprises two verticallyspaced hollow frames 18and 19, these frames being integrally connected by vertical posts 21.The posts are engaged by clamping plates 22 bolted to the posts 12 ofthe main housing 11. Each of the frames 18 and 19 is provided with awindow, not shown, in which is slidably mounted two bearings 23 for theroll necks 24 of two grooved vertical rolls 25.

The bearings are arranged to be adjusted in a horizontal direction byany suitable and Well-known means including a screwdown apparatus 26mounted on the main housing and actuated by an electric motor 27. Thebearings include a provision for receiving .both radial and thrust loadsand the vertical position of the upper bearings is determined by thesetting of a parallelogram bearing adjusting apparatus 28 of the kindshown and described in the patent of Morgan No. 2,184,463. A motor 20provides for the vertical movement of the roll cage 16 within the mainhousing through We11 known screw means 30.

At some distance below the rolls there is provided a driving mechanismcomprising a gear housing 29 which encloses a pair of meshing, verticalpinions 31. These I pinions are suitably driven through bevel gears, notshown, which are connected to a horizontal drive shaft 32 which isdriven by an electric motor, not shown. Each pinion is provided with ahollow vertical bore 33 which is formed with a vertical internal gearsurface having a cylindrical pitch surface. In each bore resides a head34 of a spindle 35, the head being formed with gear teeth having aspherical pitch surface to engage the bore 33 in driving relation in themanner shown and described in the patent of Morgan No. 2,136,947. Thespindles 35 are operatively connected to the respective rolls 25 and theconnection between the spindles and the rolls is best seen in Figure 3.The upper end of each spindle 35 is provided with a head 36 having gearteeth of spherical pitch surface similar to'that carried on the lowerend. The head resides in an internally geared surface of a bore 37formed in one end of a generally-cylindrical coupling 38. The neck 24 ofthe roll 25 is formed with a non-circular end portion 39 which fitssnugly and non-rotatably into a reduced portion 41 of the bore 37. Aplate 42 separates the reduced portion of the bore from the gearedportion. Next to the end portion 39 of the roll neck is an enlargedportion 43 which fits loosely into a counterbore 44 formed in thecoupling. An annular groove 45 is formed on the portion 43. A, number ofoutwardly and downwardlyinclined bores 46 are formed in the couplingandhave their inner ends located adjacent the groove 45. Each bore 46 isprovided with a hardened ball 47 which normally resides partly in thegroove 45 and partly in its springs 52 equally spaced about the sleeveand joining it to the coupling. Adjacent each bore 47 in the coupling isa recess 53 on the inner surface of the sleeve. Each recess has aninclined upper surface 54, the intersection of which with the innersurface of the sleeve is normally slightly below the center of the'ball47. The upper end of the sleeve 48 is provided with anoutwardlyextending flange 55.

Referring to all figures of the drawings, a horizontal shaft 56 ismounted on the roll case 15 on one side of the rolls, while a similarshaft 57 is mounted on the other side. Keyed to the shafts adjacent therolls are arms 58, each of which is provided with a hardened steel bar59; the location and'sizes of these elements are such that, when theshafts 56 and 57 are rotated, the bars 59 strike the flange 55 on thesleeve 48. The shaft 56 has an arm 61 keyed to it at one end andconnected at its other end by an adjustable connecting rod 62 to one endof an arm 63, the other end of which is keyed to the shaft 57. The arm61' is also connected by means of a link 64 to the outer end of an arm65 the inner end of which is keyed to the output shaft of a motor-gearreduction unit 66. The unit 66 can be energized in the usual way,preferably by a switch on the mill control board, not shown. Y

The operation of the apparatus will now be readily understood in view ofthe above description. During normal operation, the elements of the milloccupy the positions shown in the drawings. The rolls are'driven throughthe shaft 32, the pinions 31, the spindles 35, and the couplings 38. Thedriving torque is transmitted from the coupling 38 to the neck 24 of theroll 25 through the medium of the interengagement of the non-circularreduced portion 39 of the neck with the reduced portion 41 of the bore37 in the coupling.

When the rolls are in their lowest position a hardened button on thehead 34 of the spindle 35 strikes and rests against the bottom of thebore 33 in the pinion, as shown in Figure 1. However, when the rollshave been moved to upper positions by the motor 20 operating through thescrew means 30, the head 34 is clear of the bottom of the bore in thepinion; in this situation the coupling and spindle are suspended fromthe roll neck by virtue of the fact that each of the balls 47 residespartly in the groove 45 in the roll neck and partly in a bore 47 in thecoupling. The balls are, therefore, subjected to vertical shear forces.The normal vertical and horizontal adjustments of the rolls take placewithout changing this situation. However, when it is. desired to changerolls, it is necessary, of course, to disconnect each roll neck and itscoupling. To do this, the motor-gear reduction unit 66 is energized andit acts through the various arms and links to rotate the shafts 56 and57 so that the bars 59 move upwardly under the flange 55 of the sleeve48, thus moving the sleeve upwardly. This movement of the sleeve takesplace despite the biasing effect of the springs 52. The upward movementof the sleeve continues until recesses 53 arrive opposite their bores46; when this happens the balls 47 roll downwardly into positions inwhich they reside partly within their bores 46 and partly within theirrecesses 53, but entirely out of the groove 45. The roll may then-belifted ver tically from the coupling. In order to render a new rolloperative, the roll case 15 is lowered until the lower head 34 of thespindle 35 resides closely adjacent the bottom of the bore in thepinion. Then, when the roll has been lowered into the coupling, thereduction unit 66 is reversed and the bars 59 move out from under theflange 55 of the sleeve. The springs 52 then draw the sleeve downwardlyover the coupling. As the sleeve moves downwardly, the inclined uppersurface 54 of each recess 53 presses its ball 47 in the manner of a camout of the recess, through its bore 46 and into the groove 45 again. Themill isthen once more in condition for normal operation. l

It is obvious that minor changes may be made in the form andconstruction of the invention without departing from the material spiritthereof. It is not, however, desired to confine the invention to theexact form herein shown and described, but it is desired to include allsuch as properly come within the scope claimed.

The invention having been thus described, what is claimed as new anddesired to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A vertical rolling mill having a pair of vertical rolls, a couplingconnected to each roll, a drive spindle connected at one end to eachcoupling, a pinion connected to the other end of each spindle,comprising means permitting the rolls to be adjusted vertically withoutloss of driving connection between the rolls, couplings, spindles andpinions, the connection between each roll and its coupling permittingthe coupling and spindle to be suspended downwardly from the roll, theroll being formed with an annular groove which lies within the coupling,the coupling being formed with radial bores which normally resideadjacent the groove, spherical detent members normally residing both inthe groove and in the bores to provide a locking connection between thecoupling and roll, and means extending out of the rolling mill operativeto move the detent members out of the groove to disconnect the roll fromthe coupling.

2. A vertical rolling mill having a pair of vertical rolls,

,a coupling connected to each roll, a drive spindle connected at one endto each coupling, a pinion connected to theother end of each spindle,comprising means permitting the rolls to be adjusted vertically withoutloss of driving connection between the rolls, couplings, spindles andpinions, the connection between each roll and its coupling permittingthe coupling and spindle to be suspended downwardly from the roll, theroll being formed with an annular groove which lies within the coupling,the coupling being formed with radial bores which normally resideadjacent the groove, spherical detent members normally residing both inthe groove and in the bores to provide a locking connection between thecoupling and roll, and means including a sleeve, slidably mounted oneach coupling, and an actuating mechanism extending out of the rollingmill for moving said sleeve relative to the coupling quickly todisconnect the roll from the coupling.

3. A vertical rolling mill having a pair of vertical rolls, a couplingconnected to each roll, a drive spindle connected at one end to eachcoupling, a pinion connected to the other end of each spindle,comprising means including a splined connection between each spindle andits pinion permitting the rolls to be adjusted vertically without lossof driving connection between the rolls, couplings, spindles andpinions, the connection between each roll and its coupling permittingthe coupling and spindle to be suspended downwardly from the roll withlittle other vertical support, each roll being formed with an annulargroove which lies within its coupling, each coupling being formed withradial bores which normally reside adjacent the groove of its roll,spherical detent members normally residing both in the grooves and inthe bores to provide a locking connection between the couplings androlls, a sleeve slidably mounted in each coupling, and an actuatingmechanism'operative externally of the mill'for moving said sleeverelative to the coupling quickly to move the detent members out of thegroove to disconnect the roll from thecoupling.

4. A vertical rolling mill having a pair of vertical rolls, a couplingconnected to each roll, a drive spindle connected at one end to eachcoupling, a pinion connected to the other end of each spindle,comprising means including a splined connection between each spindle andits pinion permitting the rolls to be adjusted vertically without, lossof driving connection between the rolls, coupli'ngs,spindles and pinionstheconnection between each roll and its coupling permitting the couplingand spindle to be suspended downwardly from the roll with little othervertical support, each roll being formed with an annular groove Whichlies within its coupling, each coupling being formed with radial boreswhich normally reside adjacent the groove of its roll, spherical detentmembers normally residing both in the grooves and in} the bores toprovide a locking connection between the couplings and rolls, a flangedsleeve slidably mounted on each coupling and having a recess locatedadjacent each coupling bore normally residing slightly below the sleevebore, and an actuating mechanism operative externally of the mill formoving said sleeve relative to the coupling quickly to permit the detentmembers to drop out of the groove and into the sleeve recesses todisconnect the roll from the coupling, the said actuating mechanismincluding a motor and hinged lifting bars located on either side ofReferences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS634,732. Villard Oct. 15, 1901 1,761,943 Summers et al. June 3, 19302,136,947 Morgan Nov. 15, 1938 2,195,502 Smitmans Apr. 2, 1940 2,395,534Cook Feb. 26, 1946 2,521,791 Earle et al Sept. 12, 1950 2,575,231OMalley Nov. 13, 1951 2,617,673 Sacks Nov. 11, 1952 2,769,323 OMalleyNov. 6, 1956

